[DML] Re: Same Owner Questions Over & Over

["content22207" <brobertson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Perhaps one of the reasons the same owner questions are asked over &
over, year after year, is because the ownership base is not static. As
cars change possession, their new owners face problems that, while old
hat to veterans, are are quite new and daunting to them. Some of these
people come to the DML looking for help.

Our forum's subset of the ownership community is small enough that we
can recognize these new owners. 

True, a search of the archives would probably reveal answers to many
of these questions, and their repetitiveness. But as Farrar (a recent
new owner himself) pointed out, DML archive searches are far from user
friendly. A new owner suddenly facing an unexpected problem with a
vehicle that is very unfamiliar to him or her can be forgiven for
reflexively grabbing at whatever assistance seems available (Lord
knows he or she won't find it at a neighborhood mechanic). As a new
owner learns more about the car, and the DML itself, such plaintive
cries will decrease.

But the ever changing ownership base ensures this cycle repeats itself.

Us veteran owners are teachers of sorts. Just as classroom educators
every year have to teach new students the same academic material, we
find ourselves retreading questions about stainless steel and door
struts. Try to remember what it was like when we faced those issues
for the first time (oh so long ago). Try to remember how we wondered
what our automotive purchase had gotten us into. Try to remember how
we feared that DeLorean ownership was a downhill slide that would only
get worse, not better. In such a situation words of guidance are much
more helpful than invectives.

New owners have a responsibility to learn to stand on their own, to
figure out the DML archives and other resources, to familiarize
themselves with these cars, to practice and refine repair techniques,
and so on.

If a veteran owner fails such responsibility, that's another issue
altogether.

(I wonder if a single mass conversion to carburetion would alleviate
these questions once & for all?)

Bill Robertson
#5939




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